Apple Turnovers

Apple turnovers are easy to make! The biggest decision one needs to make is how to do the pastry crust.

If you use an already prepared frozen puff pastry or folded pie crust, the apple turnovers will be a snap to make, they will look pretty, and the crust will lots of buttery layers.

If you use a homemade butter crust (pâte brisée) which is really not so hard to make, your pastry will taste wonderful, and may even be flaky, but not filled with puffy layers.

If you make your own homemade puff pastry dough, which requires technique and steps beyond a simple homemade pie dough, you will have a truly delicious and gorgeous pastry.

Since I have yet to master this last technique, I am obliged to use either a homemade butter pie crust, or a frozen prepared puff pastry sheet. I’ve made apple turnovers with both, and I can say that the homemade butter crust is light years better than the frozen puff pastry, but is obviously a bit more work.

So, what I have here is a recipe that calls for either using a frozen puff pastry sheet or homemade pâte brisée dough.

The inside of these apple turnovers include apples, of course, but also dried currants, walnuts, apple sauce, a little sugar and cinnamon, and a dash of vanilla.

Method

2 Make filling: In a medium bowl, mix together apples, currants, and walnuts with the sugar, cinnamon, and corn starch, making sure the fruit and nuts are well coated. Mix in the apple sauce and vanilla.

3a If using puff pastry: Unfold the thawed pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Depending on the size of your puff pastry sheet you are going to want to cut the sheet into either four 5-inch-by-5-inch or six 4-inch-by-4-inch squares.

3b If using pie dough: Roll out your pie dough on a lightly floured surface to a 16x11 inch rectangle. Trim the edges to 15x10 inches and cut into six 5x5-inch squares.

4 Add filling to pastry squares: Divide the apple mixture among the squares, leaving a 1-inch border. If you are using an already prepared puff pastry sheet, dot the mixture in each pastry with a little butter. (If you are using a butter pie dough, you can skip adding the extra butter.)

5 Brush egg mixture on pastry edges: In a small bowl mix the beaten egg with a teaspoon of milk. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg mixture on the border of the pastry. This will help the pastry seal.

6 Fold and crimp, add steam vents: Fold each pastry into a triangle, enclosing the filling, and crimp edges with a fork. Brush the tops of the pastries with more of the egg wash. Cut 2 or 3 small steam vents in the top of each turnover.

7 Bake: Place the pastries in the oven and bake at 400°F for 20 minutes, or until puffed and golden.

Cool turnovers to warm before serving.

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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.

At home, my grandma makes something similar which has a wounderful flaky, even puffy pastry.
1/2 pound flour
1/2 pound curd
1/2 pound butter
knead it together and put the dough in the fridge for a few hours. Cut up the apples and braise them (you can add raisins or chopped nuts if you like, we like it plain). Roll the dough out thinly. Cut the dough into squares. Drain the braised apples. Add about a spoon in the middle of the doughsquares, fold over and press the corners together. Bake until golden brown. Glaze with icing. They are best eaten warm

Why is it necessary to cook the apples before baking them? I haven’t tried this recipe yet and just want to know if this is absolutely a must.

Apples give off a lot of moisture, they also deflate a lot when cooking. So, if you cook them first, you will have a filling that isn’t as runny, and is a filling, rather than mostly air because the apples deflated. ~Elise

To seal the edges brush lightly with a beaten eggwhite, this works best. While frozen pastry can be good if you are in a bind but making homemade puff pastry really is very simple given that you follow a few simple key things.

-Use the best quality butter available My favorite is Beurremont, and 83% butterfat french-cultured butter from new england. Trust me, the butter will make a noticeable difference.

-When folding and rolling, you need to work as fast as possible to keep the butter form melting into the dough.

-In between the turns, the dough needs to be very well chilled. Most people say 30 minutes in the refrigerator between turns is enough, I find that 45 minutes is better.

I tried this recipe for the first time today and it came out really well! I don’t have a food processor and my blender just didn’t get the job done so the whole dough making process was difficult. In fact the dough was still pretty dry and I had to add extra water. I’ll have to keep practicing! In any case the finished product was delicious. Thanks, of all the blogs I have visited, I think this one is the best.

I’ve used this recipe and several variations of the ingredients for years. I use frozen pastry and to seal it I run a bit of water on the finger tips along the outer edge before folding over. then you can just press the dough together with your finger tips. To please the kids I sprinkle sugar on the top after putting on the egg wash. They are a definite hit!

These were excellent–at least we loved them–even with storebought puff pastry. How thin do you roll the puff pastry out, though? Mine seemed a bit thick after baking. They were gobbled down and my six year old declared them “as good as marshmallows and better than chocolate chips!” Which is high praise from him. :)

Hello Elise, I love this recipe. I thought you might like this short extract from an eighteenth century book called “The Country Housewife’s Companion”, by William Ellis. Feeding the farmhands was a big effort in 1750, and apple pasties were just the thing.

“Of Apple-Pyes, and Apple Pasties, for Harvest and other Times”.

Apple Pyes and Pasties are a main Part of a prudent, frugal Farmer’s Family-Food, because the Meal and Apples that make them are commonly the Produce of his Land, and are ready at all Times to be made use of in Pyes or Pasties, for giving his Family and agreeable palatable Repast; a covered or turn-over Pasty for the Filed, and the round Pye for the House; the first being of a Make and Size that better suits the Hand and Pocket than the round Pye, and therefore are more commonly made in Farmers Families; for one, or a Piece of one, being carried in the Plowman’s and Plowboys Pocket, sustains their hunger till they come home to Dinner, and oftentimes pleases them beyond some sort of more costly Eatables; nor is it less wholesome than pleasant, for that the Ingredients of the Apple-pye are rather Antidotes against, than Promoters of the Scurvy. In short, it is the Apple Pye and Pasty, and Apples made use of in some other Shapes (particularly the famous Parsnip Apple) that I take to be some of the cheapest and most agreeable Food a Farmer’s Family can make use of.”